The society and animal welfare - Bosnia & Herzegovina

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Bosnia is located in the western Balkans, bordering Croatia to the north and south-west, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast. During the 90s there was a war, and it destroyed many, many lifes, towns, development and prosperity of this country. Years has passed from that oufoul period, during which people fought for their political and civil righs. Somewhere in the path of the recovery people forgot about the animals. In one hand, you can't blame them - they survived horrible time of war, which left deep and painfull consequences - but on the other hand - it's not the animals' fault.

This was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum and established their own republic. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of independence (which had gained international recognition), the Bosnian Serbs, supported by the Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mobilized their forces inside the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure Serbian territory, then war soon broke out across the country, accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Bosniak and Croat population, especially in eastern Bosnia and throughout the Republika Srpska.

It was principally a territorial conflict, initially between the Serb forces mostly organized in the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) which was largely composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) on the other side. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian. The Serb and Croat political leadership agreed on a partition of Bosnia with the Karađorđevo and Graz agreements, resulting in the Croat forces turning against the ARBiH and the Croat-Bosniak war. The war was characterized by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape, mostly led by Serb and, to a lesser extent, Croat forces. Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre would become iconic of the conflict.

The Serbs, although initially superior due to the vast amount of weapons and resources provided by the JNA, eventually lost momentum as the Bosniaks and Croats allied themselves against the Republika Srpska in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Washington agreement. After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Paris on 14 December 1995.

Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and were finalized on 21 December 1995. The accords are now known as the Dayton Agreement. A 1995 report by the Central Intelligence Agency found that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for 90% of the war crimes committed during the conflict. As of early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs, 12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia. The most recent figures suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war. In addition, an estimated total of 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped, and over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.

On 21 June 2007, the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center published the most extensive research on Bosnia-Herzegovina's war casualties titled: The Bosnian Book of the Dead – a database that reveals "a minimum of" 97,207 names of Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens killed and missing during the 1992–1995 war. The head of the UN war crimes tribunal's Demographic Unit, Ewa Tabeu, has called it "the largest existing database on Bosnian war victims" and it is considered the most authoritative account on human losses in the Bosnian war. More than 240,000 pieces of data have been collected, processed, checked, compared and evaluated by an international team of experts to produce the final number of over 97,000 victim's names of all nationalities. The research has shown that most of the 97,207 documented casualties (civilians and soldiers) during Bosnian War were Bosniaks (66 percent), followed by Serbs (25 percent), Croats (8 percent) and a small number of others such as Albanians or Romani people. Bosniaks also suffered massive civilian casualties (83 percent) compared to Serbs (10 percent) and Croats (5 percent). At least 30 percent of the Bosniak civilian victims were women and children. The proportion of civilian victims is, moreover, an absolute minimum because a considerable number of people had registered their dead loved ones as military victims in order to financially obtain veteran's benefits - source

War Child

Hope Fades for Lost Children of Bosnia’s War More than a thousand children are listed as missing from Bosnia’s 1992-5 war – almost certainly lying in unknown graves – and with each year that passes, hopes fades of discovering their remains.In July 1995, Dzemka Pasic left her home with bag in her hands and memories of her life in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia.

She went to the UN base in Potocari with the other fleeing people from the town in a long column, while her teenage sons went with other men through the woods, hoping to save themselves from the incoming Bosnian Serb army under General Ratko Mladic. Behind her in the town, she left behind all that she had. In the woods was what she loved the most, her two sons, Muhamed and Muamer.

“The first was born in 1976, and the second in 1978. I parted with them at the gas station,” she said. “They went and left and I went to Potocari. As the youngest son left…he peeped back at me... They were still children… I have not found them yet, nor have I heard anything about them,” she added.

Muhamed and Muamer Pasic are two just two of the names kept in the records of missing citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the names of more than 1,000 children that have never been found.

There is still no official and complete information on the number of children who were murdered or who went missing, presumably murdered, in Bosnia’s 1992-5 war.

Bosnia’s Institute for Missing Persons, INO, says each day it gets less and less information on possible potential mass graves. They are concerned that some children will never be found - source

ENDURING TRAUMA, NEGLECT

An Amnesty International report on children in armed forces around the world published in February notes that as well as missing out on childhood and schooling, child soldiers are exposed to dangers that will cause physical and mental trauma. Nedzad Hodzic, from the central town of Travnik was only 15 when he joined the Bosnian government army in 1992. In August that year, he was badly wounded. “I was very young – too young – when all that happened; the war and my injury. That’s something no one should go through, least of all a child,” he said.

Hodzic’s memories will always be overshadowed by the day his was shot.

“When I joined the army, I was assigned to delivering food to the trenches by horse. On August 12, on my way up to the trenches, a sniper shot me in the head. I spent seven or eight days in a coma. That wasn’t the only trauma I suffered in the war, but it was certainly the biggest,” he said.

Branko Matosin, who heads the association of Bosnian Croats who served as young volunteers, says life is tough for most of the former child soldiers from the war. Most are unemployed, and they get little outside help in trying to come to terms with their experiences.

“Many members of our association are in various healthcare institutions, mostly psychiatric, and no one wants to help them,” said Matosin, who was himself a child soldier with Bosnian Croat forces. “Society not only downplays our involvement in the Bosnian war, but it persistently neglects us, as if to cover up the fact that children, too, fought in the war.”

Both of BiH’s administrative entities, the Federation and Republika Srpska, have legislation covering the rights of former combatants. These laws do not make separate provision for those who were minors at the time, as they do not recognise them as a separate category. Such individuals are entitled to the same rights as other war veterans. For example, they have the right to free healthcare, orthopaedic devices for the disabled, and preferential treatment when applying for jobs and housing. Former child soldiers say that in practice their rights are often disregarded, particularly when it comes to employment and healthcare - source

Bosnian Children of War

Mostar's Children - Bosnia

Social welfareand economy

Bosnia and Herzogovina started moving towards a market economy at the end of 1995 after the war that followed its declaration of independence from Yugoslavia. Under Bosnia and Herzogovina's constitution, there are two highly autonomous Entities in addition to the national government, and most reforms have been carried out at the Entity level. The first World Bank report on the observance of standards and codes on accounting and auditing in Bosnia and Herzogovina was published in October 2004 and made a range of recommendations for improving the frameworks for accounting and auditing. The World Bank started work on updating the 2004 ROSC in 2010, and this updated assessment is currently being finalizedIn recent years, Bosnia and Herzegovina has focused on the creation of a single economic space within the country. It has also established a strategic aim of becoming a member of the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU in June 2008, which provides the country with a clear EU perspective - source

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) - Statement at the Conclusion of an IMF Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
Press Release No. 13/459 November 20, 2013 An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Ron van Rooden,
visited Banja Luka and Sarajevo during November 6-20, 2013, to discuss
recent economic developments and policies for the fifth review under
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). At the conclusion
of the visit, Mr. van Rooden made the following statement:
“Growing external demand and reduced financial market stresses in
Europe, together with prudent economic policies, have helped Bosnia and
Herzegovina (BiH) to sustain the modest recovery that started earlier
this year. Exports have continued to lead the recovery, and high
frequency indicators suggest that the pick-up in economic activity is
becoming more broad-based. Real GDP is expected to expand by around 1
percent in 2013 and is projected to pick up further in 2014 to around 2
percent, in line with developments in Europe. Inflation is expected to
remain low.
“The authorities continue to make steady progress under the SBA, and
program targets for end-September 2013 were met with considerable
margins. Steps are being taken to ensure that, despite
lower-than-expected indirect revenue collection, end-2013 budget balance
targets will be achieved, and that the overall budget deficit for BiH
will be contained to about 2 percent of GDP this year. Achieving these
objectives, however, will require continued strict expenditure control
and improved tax collection.

“The mission reached understandings on government budgets for 2014 that would preserve the gains made so far in fiscal consolidation and place public debt firmly on a downward path. These budgets have been based on prudent revenue assumptions and keep the spending envelopes broadly unchanged from this year’s levels, aiming to achieve an overall budget deficit of just under 2 percent of GDP. Nevertheless, even with strict spending control and efforts to improve revenue collection, it is expected that additional financing needs will arise in late 2014 due to lower one-off revenues and high debt service obligations. To avoid a sharp fiscal contraction that would cause substantial social hardship and undermine the still fragile economic recovery, the authorities request to extend the current arrangement and request additional financial support to help address these financing needs. In addition, the program extension would ensure that the SBA will continue to provide an anchor for the authorities’ economic policies during the election period and the formation of the next governments.

“The mission also made significant progress in discussing the authorities’ structural reform agenda for the remainder of the program, including the period of the requested extension. Policies will build on the progress made so far and be geared toward: (i) continued gradual and sustainable fiscal consolidation, with an increasing focus on improving revenue performance, streamlining the public sector, and preserving the gains from entitlement reforms; (ii) safeguarding financial sector stability through strengthening the legislative and regulatory framework; and (iii) fostering the development of a vibrant private sector that can provide more jobs by improving the business environment and advancing labor market reforms.

“The mission expects to resolve outstanding issues in the coming days, and looks forward to the timely adoption of the 2014 government budgets by the respective parliaments, which would pave the way for consideration of the fifth review under the SBA and the authorities’ request for the extension and augmentation of the current arrangement by the IMF Executive Board before the end of the year.” - source

Animal welfare

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Capitol city Sarajevo have few
shelters with substandard conditions and insufficiently capacities and
most other cities dont have shelter. In 2013 we have situation of approximately 11 000 stray dogs just in Sarajevo, the situation has increased since 2012. You can see dogs in the main streets, lay down on the street, drinking water from fountains, eating from garbage bins. They walk around alone or in packs, day and night. People are afraid, and medias are making situation worse publishing scary stories, talking about aggressive, angry, hungry dogs walking around and about great opportunity being bitten by infected dog/s.

Only few years ago (2009) BiH adopted animals protection law, but the problem is they did not provide the technical conditions for law enforcement, so we have today situation of many stray dogs only in Sarajevo.

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There are some formal active associations, like Av- mau, U.g. S.o.s., Avlijaneri in Sarajevo, “Spas” Bihac..., but their activism is not changing the situation very much. There are some individuals trying to change it, trying to help stray dogs and cats by taking them to vets and temporary homes until they recover or find permanent home.

Every day more and more people (especially young ones) are joining groups for animal protections in BiH on Facebook. We are all witness of cruel animal torture, and are so frustrated in feelings about all cruelty and we have so strong desire to help all poor animals.

At this point I could say that people who want to help stray dogs and cats are not working together, organizations are trying but can't improve much in this situation. They depend lot of state government, but they seem to be not interested in solving this urgent situation - Written by citizens of Bosnia & Herzegovina